The Return of Sherlock Holmes Foreignness and 'the Other' Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Story.Paragraph) or (Story.Section.Paragraph) if applicable.

Quote #7

"The second floor is inhabited by Daulat Ras, the Indian. He is a quiet, inscrutable fellow, as most of those Indians are." (Three Students.82)

This throwaway line is a good example of making someone an "other." In literary and psychological theory, the "other" is a person or group who is seen as totally opposite of the self or the main group and is depicted negatively. The professor here dismisses Daulat as inscrutable, or mysterious, like "most Indians" are, implying that Indian people are not only hard to understand, but also aren't really worth understanding.

Quote #8

"As to you, sir, I trust that a bright future awaits you in Rhodesia. For once you have fallen low. Let us see, in the future, how high you can rise." (Three Students.212)

We see the idea of going off to the empire to find fortune and success in a number of these stories; it seems that there was more anxiety regarding people coming to England from foreign places than people leaving England for foreign places.

Quote #9

"If you were to search all of England," said he, "I don't suppose you could find a household more self-contained or freer from outside influence." (Pince-Nez.21)

This statement is given at the start of the "Golden Pince-Nez" case and proves very thematically important since the house in question became the sight of a sort of foreign invasion through the character of Anna. Given all the secrets and foreign characters in the case, this statement becomes quite ironic.